All rights to Veronica Roth…I own nothing!
A woman walks quickly down a darkened street. The only sounds are her shoes on the pavement and the heaviness in her breath. There's a gust of wind and she pulls her coat closer to her neck. She's in such a hurry, she doesn't even notice the man trailing behind her. For blocks he follows her, quietly keeping pace.
" Evelyn!" The man's voice calls out.
With the assumption she's alone, the man's voice rings loudly and she nearly jumps out of her skin.
" My god!" she cries out, " What are you doing? You scared me half to death!"
The man slowly approaches, his arms in front of him in a gesture of good faith.
" Calm down!" he tells her, " David has sent me. He needs to see you. It says it's urgent."
Evelyn takes a moment and thinks over the afternoon events and her encounter with her son. She looks to the man and the look on his face makes her realize he's noticed her brief hesitation. With another tug on her collar, she walks to the man and follows him down a side street.
They make a maze through several streets to a different part of town. Approaching a small wooden door in a brick building, the man comes to a sudden stop, gesturing forward to Evelyn.
" What?" She exclaims, " You mean he's here? "
" He's waiting, Ma'am."
Entering the building and climbing the immediate staircase in front of her, Evelyn begins to nervously quiver. She has put so much effort into their work, so much time. But Tobias is her son. More importantly, David is a very scary man.
Reaching the top of the stairs she finds a long hallway. At the end there is a door cracked open and it emits a soft light. Straightening up, she heads for it. Creaking the door open she sees David in a small room alone, facing the only window.
"David?" She announces herself politely, no need to stir things up right out of the gate.
David turns his head slightly to the right and breathes deeply, "Come in Evelyn!" he says sternly.
Entering the room completely, she turns and closes the door behind her. " You know David, if you needed to speak to me you didn't have to go to such lengths. I would have come immediately!"
" And so you did!" David says, turning his wheel chair to finally face her. In his lap lies a thick folder. Evelyn recognizes it by the code across the top. It's the main file, it holds all the detail to their project.
" This has been a long road, a long agonizing road. Countless days, months and even years we've spent working closely and even as two adults, we've become closer. Now, we find ourselves at a turning point. Is there a reason why you did not personally inform me of the information you've come across?"
For a moment she stands there. Her mind goes blank and suffers a brief panic.
" I don't..." she begins, but is quickly cut off.
" No you didn't!" David grimaces. " Why wouldn't you immediately come to me? Why wouldn't you tell me about the experimental process the board believes possible? Why wouldn't you come to me with the fertilization prospect? Evelyn! I'm asking you a question!"
His voice is angry but he almost sounds hurt. A sign as to how deeply he treasures his work.
" David, I promise, I was about to come and find you! I had some personal matters to take care of first! " She argues, " I would never keep such important information from you!"
He takes a few minutes to absorb his thoughts, folding his hands over each other in his lap.
" I suppose I did jump on you. I apologize. " He reaches a hand out and without a word, Evelyn crosses the room to him. Taking his hand in hers, she kneels next to him, placing his hand to her cheek. For a moment they lock eyes.
" This is big news for our cause, Evelyn! This will change the face of the entire program. We could bring it to the public finally. No one would refute us with an advancement like that!"
He smiles to her and she melts into him, embracing him tightly. She sighs and sits back on he heels.
" Where do we begin?" As soon as she says it, she already knows the answer.
" We find Ms. Beatrice Prior! Whatever rebel action took her certainly was able to keep her well and alive, by the amount of drugs they stole from the supply cabinet. We've started processing all the eyewitness accounts from the compound and we've made some advances. I have no doubt we'll know something soon!" David sounds extremely reassured, and that startles her.
Evelyn feels her body go rigged. She sits back away from him, trying to hide her very visible confliction.
" Evelyn?" He reaches his other hand out and with a finger to her chin, pulls her face back towards his own. " Smile! This is amazing new for us! Everything is looking up!"
He looks into her eyes and he sees the confusion. Shaking his head, he furrows his brow. " What is it?"
She bites her lip softly. She's lost.
" I may know something more." She forces out, " I may know more about these rebels that took D1 from the facility."
Carefully she sits up and begins to stand away from him. Her face scrunches up as a physical manifestation of her confliction. She begins to murmur to herself. Weighing options in either direction. Pacing back and forth until she comes to a full stop in the middle of the room. Like a bolt of lightning she turns on point, her eyes glazed over." There are two things I know in this world. One is that this project is dire to the preservation of the human race. To our future the way we desire it! Two, I was never meant to be a mother. I have never had a motherly bone in my body. David, it's Tobias! It was him who penetrated our facility and took D1." It all comes out so quickly, there's no stopping it. Her eyes widen in disbelief.
" Thank you for your honesty! And so I suppose I should be honest too. The truth is we knew about Tobias. I just wanted to be sure you could be trusted with this new information."
David begins to wheel himself forward and opens the door.
" We've been monitoring you since you got back in town. We know you went to his home, twice. We know you met with him. We even watched him leave. Don't be ashamed, this was beyond helpful. You did no wrong here! Should be easy enough to reclaim Ms. Prior, now that we know where they are."
Writer's note: hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. things are about to pick up :D